Let's Play Advice?

[EvilTheCat6600]

So I finally started putting content on my YouTube channel. A friend of mine and I are running a Let's Play series. Unfortunately the first two episodes are 55:56 and 43:39 in time frame. I'm concerned we're making the videos too long. I want them to be at a length where people will actually want to take the time to watch them.

Does anyone know what the traditional acceptable time frame for a single Let's Play episode is? I'd like to hear different opinions if possible to see what many people think to find the best average.

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

Around 30 minutes I'd say would be average. Depends on the game you're playing, tbh. But if you have a great/entertaining personality, people will probably watch longer videos.

 

[EvilTheCat6600]

Right now we're working our way through all five episodes of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People.

 

[LadyDestani]

My husband watches a lot of Let's Play videos and he usually expects the time to be about 20-30 minutes per video. Anything much longer than 30 minutes and he'll say "Woah" and stop the video because he may not have enough time to watch it at that moment. But if it's content he really wants to see, he'll try to make time and go back to it later.

Good luck with your channel!

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

You could always cut up the video You don't have to post it all at once.

 

[EvilTheCat6600]

@LadyDestani Thanks

@Arize Why didn't I think of that to begin with? T_T Well, we filmed an episode yesterday that I'm uploading now. It'll be the last episode to bypass the 30 minute mark unless it's a minute or two longer so I'm doing another upload tonight.

 

[Nerd House]

My advice would be to look at a few popular Let's Players and see their habits. People like Game Grumps, Super Beard Bros, or Chuggaaconroy do their videos anywhere from 10-25 minutes, which I feel is a nice balance. Though depending on the game, you might go a little longer. I feel like it's not a STRICT rule kinda thing, but you should be able and willing to be flexible. I'd say do a few and see how they do stat-wise, and go from there....adjusting as necessary. Doesn't YouTube have an "Average Watch Time" stat you can see? Check that every so often.

Also most of the advice I see for streamers would apply to YouTubers as well. KEEP TALKING. lol.

 

[EvilTheCat6600]

There were a few moments in tonight's video where I didn't know what to say T_T Though it did clock in at about 28 minutes.

Yeah YouTube has an average watch time somewhere, but I have a very small subscriber base right now and there's only like two or three of them who are actively watching the videos I post to begin with. I made the channel a couple years ago but never got around to adding content at the time because I was working for another channel back then.

So I'm basically finally starting to get content up on my channel now. Not much to offer the whole of YouTube just yet, but since I'm so small I wanna get all the advice I can early on. Oh and I don't really understand how the numbers on the analytics work, if I'm being totally honest.

 

[Tao]

My advice would be to look at a few popular Let's Players and see their habits. People like Game Grumps, Super Beard Bros, or Chuggaaconroy do their videos anywhere from 10-25 minutes, which I feel is a nice balance.

They're also 'established' names on Youtube that have an audience, so people are likely going to watch something that's up to 25/30 minutes long.

I don't tend to watch lets plays often, but when I do it's from channels I already watch content from that I've already got an interest in. Assuming I like the lets plays from those channels, I'm fine even if the videos are an hour+ in length. For somebody I've never seen content from, especially an 'unknown' channel, I'm going to pass on anything longer than 10 minutes.

 

[EvilTheCat6600]

They're also 'established' names on Youtube that have an audience, so people are likely going to watch something that's up to 25/30 minutes long.

I don't tend to watch lets plays often, but when I do it's from channels I already watch content from that I've already got an interest in. Assuming I like the lets plays from those channels, I'm fine even if the videos are an hour+ in length. For somebody I've never seen content from, especially an 'unknown' channel, I'm going to pass on anything longer than 10 minutes.

I have ideas for other content in mind. Some projects I'm researching and some projects are currently in the planning stages and SOME projects...well there are few projects I'm not sure when the best time to tackle will be nor when I'll have the resources needed to work on them.

But at the end of it all, I plan to eventually have more content then just the LP's on my channel.